South Coast Coastguard helicopter evacuated divers for recompression in three separate incidents in one afternoon.

The SAR machine, based at Portland in Dorset, carried out the operations on Saturday, 12 June. First, the Coastguard responded to a call from the dive vessel Redcrest about a male diver showing signs of decompression illness. The casualty was flown from Swanage to Poole Hyperbaric Centre, in Parkstone.

Later in the afternoon, the helicopter was called out to airlift a diver from the dive boat Skin Deep, in Weymouth Bay. The man, showing DCI symptoms, was also flown to the recompression chamber in Poole.

Just minutes after finishing the sortie, the aircraft was dispatched once more to the vessel Miss Pattie, in Lyme Bay. Another male diver, showing signs of DCI, was airlifted to the Poole facility.

A spokeswoman at Poole Hyperbaric Centre has confirmed

that the three men were successfully accommodated by the two chambers on site. All recovered following sessions in the pot.

Dorset diver
A man has died after getting into difficulties while diving off Portland Bill, in Dorset.

The diver, reported to be in his 40s, was diving in a group of 10 from a chartered vessel when the incident, said to have involved a rapid ascent, occurred during a mid-afternoon dive on Monday.

He was retrieved aboard the dive boat, which put out a distress call. The Portland Bill Coastguard helicopter airlifted the casualty to hospital, where he died. Two other dive boats helped to recover the rest of the diving group.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said: "The man, who was from the Watford area, was with a group of friends who were all very experienced divers. They were off the Grove, Portland, on a drift dive."

The police are investigating the death but have said they are not treating it as suspicious.

Dorset emergency services attended two other dive-related incidents on the same day. One diver was airlifted to Poole Hospital for recompression treatment after undergoing a rapid ascent off St Alban's Head, near Swanage.

Another diver was airlifted to Dorset County Hospital after falling at Lulworth Cove's slipway, reportedly after suffering a fit. It was not clear whether the incident occurred before or after his dive.